As professors introduced us to their classes last week, many of us casually flipped through the syllabi while they brushed over the university’s academic honesty policy that they’re required to include. In a digital age that makes plagiarism so easy, they expect us to understand the consequences.

Unfortunately, a lot of students don’t. Plagiarism is more than copying word-for-word; the crime includes using similar sentence structure or misusing citations — rules that many students have forgotten or may have never learned.

Through its new plagiarism school, the university is giving those students a second chance, and we applaud the initiative. If a student truly doesn’t understand what he or she did wrong, that student should have the opportunity to learn. On the second offense, full punishment is fair game.

We don’t wish to minimize the seriousness of plagiarism; it’s a crime that has ruined careers of journalists who have tainted the integrity of the field. But those who don’t understand their misconduct should learn the rules in an academic setting — before the consequences cost them their career.

The above editorial is the consensus

opinion of the Daily Kent Stater editorial

board.